Introducing forensic semiotics in criminal investigations
Marcel Danesi · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2023
The scientific investigation of crime comes under the general rubric of forensic science, which embraces a large range of related branches, from forensic psychology to computer forensics. In this chapter, it is argued that forensic semiotics belongs to this interdisciplinary paradigm, even though it is relatively unknown among both forensic scientists and semioticians themselves. The aim is to show how notions and methods developed in semiotics and cognate disciplines can be applied fruitfully to criminal investigations, focusing on the analysis of L-signs (signs of lying) and I-signs (signs of identity), which can help identify a perpetrator. Above all else, forensic semiotics implies the use of an analytical method based on abduction, namely the inference of how clues (signs) cohere into meaningful patterns—a mode of thinking that was exemplified by the classic fictional detectives C. Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes, who are the ipso facto founders of forensic semiotic method.